the country thoroughly disapproved; and accordingly the League was a second time dissolved.

Cobden's devoted labours in advancing the cause of Free Trade had necessitated his neglect of his private business, and of course he had suffered accordingly. To compensate him for his losses, a subscription on his behalf was started, to which money rapidly poured in. In 1848, he was presented with a testimonial of over £76,000. Of this sum, he unfortunately invested part in American railway speculations which turned out badly, and involved him in considerable financial difficulties. A few of his old friends came nobly to his assistance in 1860, and privately presented him with a sum exceeding £40,000. Before his death, which occurred on April 2, 1865, amid the universal regret even of those who had been his most strenuous opponents, he rendered a great service to the commercial world. In 1859-60, he negotiated with the French Government a treaty which did much to facilitate commercial intercourse between Great Britain and France. By this treaty, which, after having been renewed in 1870, expired at the close of 1880, great reductions were made in the scale of duties levied on British goods in France, and corresponding abatements in the British tariff on French wines, silks, and other articles.

Since the repeal of the Corn Laws, British legislation has more and more advanced in the direction of Free Trade, with what satisfactory results has been over and over proved by the clear evidence of statistical tables. We have not succeeded to so great an extent as Cobden and the other early apostles of Free Trade hoped, in inducing other nations to follow in our footsteps; and hence there arises periodically from industries suffering under a temporary depression, a cry for Protection, under the new name of Reciprocity. But the nation has gradually accepted the sound doctrine that it is better to buy cheap, even if artificial obstacles make it impossible to sell dear; and there appears little reason to apprehend that it will ever depart from it.

IN the year 1712, the Tory Ministers of Queen Anne, finding that the Whig Press by its ability, force of invective, and attractiveness, was undermining their influence in the country, determined to place it under some severe restraints. With this view they imposed a Stamp Duty of d. on every newspaper or pamphlet containing half a sheet or less, the tax rising to id. on a whole sheet. 'Grub Street has but ten days to live,' writes Swift to Stella on July 17, 1712; 'then an Act of Parliament takes place that ruins it by taxing every half-sheet at a halfpenny.' Again, on August 7 of the same year, he writes: 'Do you know that Grub Street is dead and gone last week? No more ghosts or murders now for love or money. I plied it pretty close the last fortnight, and published at least seven penny papers of my own, besides some of other people; but now every single half-sheet pays a halfpenny to the Queen. The Observator is fallen; the Medleys are jumbled together with the Flying Post; the Examiner is deadly sick; the Spectator keeps up and doubles its price; I know not how long it will hold. Have you seen the red stamp the papers are marked with? Methinks it is worth a halfpenny the stamping.' At the same time as the Stamp Duty, a tax of Is. on every advertisement, and also a duty on paper and foreign

books, were imposed, which had the effect of still further crippling the Press. These taxes on knowledge continued to exist, with various modifications, for almost a century and a half. By gradual steps, the Stamp Duty on newspapers rose, till in the reign of George III. it was increased to 4d. After the passing of the Reform Act, the demand for cheap newspapers became so great that unstamped and illegal publications abounded. The Government of Lord Melbourne, finding it impossible to suppress them by fines and imprisonment, reduced the duty to id. in 1836. In the same year, the Paper Duty, which had hitherto been 3d. per pound for certain qualities and 1d. for others, was reduced to a uniform rate of 1d. per pound; and the duty on advertisements, which had risen to the enormous sum of 3s. 6d. for each advertisement in Great Britain and 2s. 6d. in Ireland, was reduced to Is. 6d. in Great Britain and Is. in Ireland. These reductions were largely brought about by the impossibility of suppressing the unstamped, and therefore cheap, newspapers circulated among those who could not afford to take in the stamped newspapers. The Government prosecution against Henry Hetherington, proprietor and editor of the Poor Man's Guardian, failed. His trial took place before Lord Lyndhurst, then Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in 1835. The jury, at the conclusion of the trial, returned a verdict of 'Not Guilty,' as to the Poor Man's Guardian being an illegal publication. Hetherington conducted his own defence.

Thus we see, that at the time when our narrative commences the taxes on knowledge were three in number; first, the Stamp Duty of Id. upon every newspaper; second, the Advertisement Duty of Is. 6d. for each advertisement; and third, the Paper Duty of 11⁄2d. a pound. The introduction of penny postage, in 1840, had done much to quicken the national intelligence by linking into closer communication the different parts of the kingdom; and the gradually improving state of education, with the increasing knowledge resulting from the spread of Mechanics' Institutions and lending libraries, caused

Agitation against the Taxes on Knowledge. 267

the various fiscal restrictions on the Press to be every day felt more and more galling. Why, it was asked, should the Government profess a desire for the education of the people, while at the same time, by the continuance of oppressive enactments, they withheld from them the most valuable means of self-improvement? Why, inquired ardent reformers, was the working-man, to whom the franchise was refused on account of ignorance, denied access to political knowledge by the imposts which made newspapers so highly priced as to be almost entirely out of his reach? Everyone who had a doctrine to promulgate, an error to remove, or a grievance to lay before the public, was hampered in his operations by the taxes on books, periodicals, and newspapers. By the Paper and Stamp Duties many capitalists were deterred from investing their money in newspapers. The details appalled them when laid before them. When disposed to order 600 reams of paper, enough to last a daily journal about a month, they discovered to their consternation that, owing to the Paper Duty, the bill for 600 reams would be £1,450, and that to get them stamped would cost £1,200 more. Thus they found that £2,650 was required for paper and stamps alone for four weeks, supposing the sale to be 25 reams daily-12,500 of the size of the Daily News or Chronicle of that time. No wonder that cautious investors shrank back in horror when they contemplated the enormous amount of capital required and the uncertainty of

success.

Besides its direct results, the work of Richard Cobden and his associates in the Anti-Corn-Law League had affected the country in two ways-it had given it a desire to have Free Trade in everything, and it had shown it what great results might be achieved by steady, persistent, and skilful popular agitation. The lesson was not lost upon those desiring the repeal of the taxes on knowledge. The taxes on a nation's food,' said they, 'have been long condemned; and, in some of the most important items, at length repealed. Taxes on knowledge, though often denounced, still continue. It is, however,

high time for the country to achieve the emancipation of the mind, with a spirit as resolute as that which secured the liberties of the stomach. It is high time to repeal those spiritual window duties which exclude the light of heaven from the soul, as their antitypes, the light of heaven from our houses. To "take the bread out of one's mouth," is not a more injurious proceeding than to deprive him who is anxious to learn of the means of improvement. He who says "Thou shalt not eat," and he who says "Thou shalt not read," are co-workers in the same cause of treachery and traitorism to the interests of universal humanity. It is high time, then, to unfetter thought, to loose the swaddling-bands of intellect, to abolish the "passport" system of "stamped " opinion, to remove every obstacle from the pathway of knowledge, whose "running to and fro" was of old predicted as the harbinger and earnest of a brighter and a happier age.'

Though we may take exception to the grandiloquent language of the above, its sentiments are unexceptionable, and they were shared by a large portion of the community. What well-disciplined organisation could effect had been shown by the success of the Anti-Corn-Law League; and the more strenuous advocates for the repeal of the taxes on knowledge determined to follow in its footsteps. In 1849, two societies, having the freedom of the Press from fiscal restrictions as their object, came into being simultaneously. One was designated the Newspapers Stamp Abolition Committee,' among the founders of which were the veteran foes of the taxes on knowledge, Henry Hetherington, James Watson, and Francis Place, who accepted the office of treasurer, At the suggestion of Mr. Cobden, this Committee was developed into the 'Association for Promoting the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge.' Of it Mr. Milner Gibson was president; Mr. C. Dobson Collet, secretary; Mr. Richard Moore, chairman; and Mr. Novello and Dr. Watts, treasurers. In the task to which it had set itself this society rendered excellent services from beginning to end of the long struggle. Its energies were